Sharpen Your Pencil Before Requesting Funding
facility management, budgeting, financial analysis, top management June 11, 2009
I’m Ed Sullivan, editor of Building Operating Management magazine. Today’s topic is the need for facility executives to sharpen their pencils before requesting funding for a project.
To develop credibility with top management, facility executives need more than financial savvy. The most successful facility executives balance the costs and benefits of facility investments. In other words, put yourself in the president’s chair and try to make decisions as the CEO would.
Doing that requires facility executives to sharpen their pencils before requesting money for any project. Management should know that the facility executive has minimized costs before coming forward with any ideas for investments.
That attitude should permeate the entire facility department. The facility staff should should be as rigorous in analyzing proposals presented to the top facility executive as they would be if that facility executive were the CFO.
That doesn’t mean facility executives or their staffs need to be CPAs. The accounting department is a resource that the facility executive can use to crunch the numbers. But it’s essential for the facility executive to take a hard look at the financial implications of any facility decision.
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